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A limewashed room with a white arched door at the centre catching the sun, brass sockets, a pale plank floor and a sash window to trees on the right.

Mews house, limewash and fitted joinery

Private homeowners · empty · Chelsea, SW10 · A private mews house over three floors with a roof terrace · Carpentry, joinery and full interior decoration to a private mews house: bespoke doors built on site, client-supplied skirting and architrave fitted, Bauwerk limewash and a bespoke hand-applied finish to the roof terrace room · March to June 2026 · Credits below

A private mews house, taken through carpentry and decoration by one contractor. We built the bespoke doors on site, a sliding door, an arched door and the under-stairs doors, then fitted the client's own skirting and architrave and painted everything we had fitted. The master bedroom carries a Bauwerk limewash. The room on the roof terrace carries a hand-applied finish worked to the clients' own brief. We also decorated the masonry outside.

The brief

The clients wanted a house finished in materials that behave like materials rather than like paint. Limewash moves in the light and varies across a wall, which is the point of it. It also shows up any surface we have not taken back and prepared properly underneath.

The joinery had to suit the house rather than the catalogue. A mews house has openings that are not square and a stair that eats the geometry. A sliding door and an arched door were the practical answers rather than the decorative ones.

Our approach

The skirting, the architrave and the door liners were supplied by the client and fitted by us. What we built is the bespoke door, the bespoke archway door and the under-stairs doors, cut and made in the house to the openings as they actually were. We then hung, scribed and painted them in place.

The arched doorway into the bathroom was an extra, priced and agreed after the main scope and made by our carpenter on site.

We finished the master bedroom in Bauwerk limewash in Bone, and that room only. Bauwerk is a mineral limewash, so we apply it in thin worked coats and build the finish rather than roll it.

The entrance hall, the living room and the staircase all the way up took Atelier Ellis paint. The remaining rooms took Graphenstone. We supplied all three at cost and itemised them on the client's own statement.

The room on the roof terrace is a deep purple Graphenstone. We laid a light purple base coat, then mixed the paint and worked it on by hand over several coats to build the effect.

It is an ordinary mineral paint worked by hand rather than a proprietary limewash, and it was made to the clients' own brief rather than taken off a chart.

On site

Protection went down over the new floors before any decorating started and stayed down until the final coat was dry.

The works ran alongside other trades and other extras, including plastering and making good. We itemised the account extra by extra as the job went, rather than presenting it in a lump at the end.

The result

A room that reads as one surface, with the limewash carrying the light across the wall instead of bouncing it back. The arched door sits in its opening as though the opening was made for it, which it was. The terrace room is the one the clients asked for and there is nothing else like it in the house.

Photographs

A room in patched bare plaster with a white moulded arched opening through the far wall to a bathroom beyond, and blue floor protection covering the floor
An arched opening formed, plastered and made good, 22 April. The arch is cut to the wall rather than bought as a frame
Patched plaster walls around a sash window to the left, brass socket plates, a slim vent above and blue floor protection throughout
Preparation, 22 April. Limewash shows everything underneath it, so the making good is done to a standard the finish will not betray
A room in patched plaster with a sash window looking into trees, brass sockets and blue protection with sunlight falling across it
Another room at the same stage on the same day
A limewashed room with a white arched door at the centre catching the sun, brass sockets, a pale plank floor and a sash window to the right
The arched door hung and painted. Our carpenter made it on site, to the opening as he found it
A finished room in pale limewash with an arched opening to the left, a sash window beyond and a pale plank floor under downlights
Limewash finished, three days later. The wall varies across its own surface, which is what the material does
A limewashed corner with a window sill to the left, a vent set into the painted skirting and a pale plank floor running through to the next room
Skirting and architrave, cut and fitted on site, then painted in with the walls
A living room with a stone fireplace surround, built-in alcove shelving and cupboards to the right with a brass upright, a window seat and a herringbone floor
The living room, with the built-in alcove shelving and the window seat in
A limewashed room with a vent in the skirting, a white panelled door to the right opening to a landing and a pale plank floor under downlights
The master bedroom from another corner. One trade fitted the woodwork and painted it
A room with deep aubergine hand-finished walls and a sloped ceiling, full height glazing out to a roof terrace, a stone topped counter to the right and a chevron floor
The roof terrace room. The finish was worked to the clients' own brief
An aubergine sloped ceiling over a pale timber fronted counter with a tap, a doorway through to a lit landing and a chevron floor
Looking back in. The glazing to the terrace is not our work and is not claimed
A deep aubergine wall with a mottled hand-applied finish, a casement window to the terrace, brass sockets and switches over a chevron floor
The finish closer. It is applied by hand so it varies, and that is the specification rather than a fault

Credits

  • Photography: SFS Interior & Exterior

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